News Archive

Internationally renowned ecologist Professor Richard Hobbs has been named WA Scientist of the Year for his outstanding contributions in helping preserve key elements of unique West Australian ecosystems.

In a career spanning more than three decades, Professor Hobbs’s research has laid the foundations for significant
developments in our understanding of the management and conservation of ecosystems and landscapes, as well as managing invasive species and restoring degraded ecosystems.

Professor Hobbs, an Australian Laureate Fellow, completed his PhD on the post-fire dynamics of heathland communities in Scotland. He later undertook postdoctoral research in California investigating serpentine grassland dynamics.

He then joined the CSIRO in Western Australia to work on the dynamics of fragmented ecosystems in the Western
Australian wheatbelt. He has continued his ecological research at Murdoch University and, since 2009, at UWA where he leads the Ecosystem Restoration and Intervention Ecology Research Group .

He has several long-term research projects, including a 29-year study of grassland dynamics in California. He and
his research team have also recently set up a large-scale project at the UWA Future Farm at Ridgefield examining the
effects of species diversity on carbon sequestration and other ecosystem processes.